January 16, 2009 - Developer Janna Bullock, New York NY

She Fixes the Stoop to Conquer

Even in a down real estate market, a town house with curb appeal can still sell.

Even in a down real estate market, a town house with curb appeal can still sell.

That’s what Janna Bullock, a developer, and Richard Steinberg, her broker at Warburg Realty, kept saying as a 25-foot-wide Beaux-Arts town house lingered on the market at 9 East 67th Street, just off Fifth Avenue, a few doors from Central Park.

The house has been listed on and off for nearly three years, and during that time Ms. Bullock tried everything. She offered it in unrenovated condition, and she invited decorators to dress it up as a show house. She took it off the market to remove most of their work and completely renovate the interior. She tried different asking prices (up to $35 million at one point) and different brokers.

Nothing seemed to work until she received permission from the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission to recreate a limestone front stoop and grand entryway to the parlor floor. The stoop had been ripped out and replaced by a garish storm window when the house was divided many years ago into at least 13 apartments with a below-grade entrance.

As the steps were being replaced in November, a buyer came to call as if by magic, Ms. Bullock said. On Monday, she closed on the purchase of the five-story town house for $24.925 million. It has 10 fireplaces with carved stone mantels, a terrace and 13,000 square feet of space.

It was just in the nick of time for Mr. Steinberg, who was about to be replaced by another broker, Nikki Field of Sotheby’s International Realty.

“When his exclusive was about to expire, he popped up with a buyer,” Ms. Bullock said. “It was a miracle.”

Aaron Shmulewitz, a partner at the law firm of Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman, represented the buyer, but would not identify the purchaser beyond “European industrialist.”

The sale brought the highest price on an Upper East Side town house since the summer, before the faltering economy and the collapse of several Wall Street firms damped the luxury real estate market.

Ms. Bullock, who is developing several other Upper East Side properties, said the experience convinced her that there was still a market for redeveloped town houses, but only if they were finished with the finest design and workmanship, the latest gadgets and home-building materials found in new luxury homes.

“It signifies that even when bad things are happening, good design is appreciated in the market,” she said.

Ms. Bullock said she understood that the buyer first saw the house when visiting a neighbor, but had not taken much notice until the new stoop was almost complete. The last bit of ironwork was not installed until the day before the closing, she said.

Original Story - New York Times